So this is interesting. Maine’s former governor Paul LePage has taken a job as a summer bartender in Maine. He joins his wife Ann, who has worked as a summer waitress at the same joint for a few years (even when she was First Lady of the state).
When Ann LePage took the summer waitressing job, local media highlighted how low the governor’s salary is in Maine ($70,000 a year). She wanted the income (and I assume given her husband’s belligerent, abusive, control-freak nature, some money that was clearly her own).
Why is LePage back in the state for the summer? Why in the world is he taking a bartending job? When he finished his term as governor, he loudly proclaimed he was moving to Florida to escape Maine’s high taxes. As promised, he’s spent the last six months living his best life in Florida, with remote guest shots on Fox News railing against evil immigrant loving tax and spend Democrats (the remote shots in the bathrobe from the Florida home was the dream gig Trump thought he’d land before he accidentally won the presidency).
The LePages aren’t rich, but they ain’t poor either. And if LePage wanted some wingnut welfare, there are plenty of conservative foundations willing to give him $50,000, $100,000, or $200,000 a year serving on a board (showing up for a meeting four times a year) or working as a consultant (probably even less work than being on a board).
I think he’s upping his visibility in the state and his blue-collar bonafides (especially after the state-funded Trump Hotel junket scandal) so that he can run for something. Getting wingnut welfare would just add to the narrative that he’s part of the swamp.
There’s only one obvious something to run for — Sellout Susie’s senate seat. He’s brayed and threatened to run against Mills for governor if he thinks she’s doing a terrible job. Which I’m sure he does, but she’s not up again for almost 4 years and already is very popular. She’s doing just about everything right to heal the state after LePage’s 8 year reign of terror. So that leaves the senate seat, and there is certainly no love lost between Collins and LePage.
I just don’t buy a 70 year old ex-Governor takes a bartending job because he “wants something to do.” Even if he’s broke with an undisclosed gambling addiction or something, there are still plenty of easy ways to get a lot of money quickly out of the wingnut welfare industrial complex.
If he primaries Collins it all gets very interesting. I think he wins easily in a Republican primary and loses overwhelmingly in a general. Even Collins will have a rough time in the general given her falling popularity and Trump’s low polls here. And poor Collins would not be able to turn around and run as an independent, because Maine has a strong sore loser law.
The other less likely prospect is running for the CD-2 seat Jared Golden just won. LePage has a much better shot at winning that seat, but I can’t believe he’d want it. And he has no residency in CD-2 (the restaurant where he is working in is CD-1). But mark my words, he’s running for something.
So stay tuned. And if you’re feeling the urge to knock back a pint and tell LePage what you think about his racist, ignorant policies, by all means stop by McSeagulls in Boothbay Harbor this summer. I hear bartenders are good listeners.